


Return

by Chelle1117



Category: SGA - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 14:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2029266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chelle1117/pseuds/Chelle1117





	Return

“Unscheduled off world activation!” Chuck made the announcement like he did every day, Rodney barely paid it any mind. Then, “Colonel Sheppard’s IDC!”

That had him up and running across the platform, yelling, “Lower the damn shield!”

As soon as the shield gave way, Sheppard stumbled through the gate, arms wide out, hands up, palms out. “It’s me,” he said to the five soldiers standing ready to cut him down.

“Sheppard?” Rodney asked, hesitant.

It had only been a handful of hours, but the more Sam and he had studied the results of the scans, the more convinced Rodney had become of Sheppard’s fate – lost in a temporal shift caused by a random solar flare’s interference with the wormhole. Being so convinced, despite working against time to prove himself wrong, Rodney couldn’t believe who or what was standing in front of him was really Sheppard. There was just no way possible it could be him.

“It’s me, Rodney,” Sheppard said again, arms still out. He stepped off the gate platform and, keeping an eye on the marines with weapons trained on him, he stepped cautiously toward Rodney.

Rodney watched warily, mouth pressed tight in a disbelieving grimace. “Impossible.”

“Not impossible. You brought me – _sent_ me – back. A solar flare, you said, did something to the wormhole. Knocked me clear into the next millennium…well, okay, maybe a little longer than that, but you were there...sort of…and had a plan. It worked.”

Rodney nodded, impatient. “Well of course it worked, if I had it and if it actually happened that way.”

“I swear it did.”

“Prove it.”

“I can do that. Let’s go to the infirmary. Dr. Keller can scan me, like she did Carson’s clone.”

Rodney felt himself starting to believe, then John said, for the third time, “I swear to you, Rodney. It’s me.”

He took a deep breath and said, “Infirmary first, then, when it’s been determined that you are indeed Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, you can tell me how in the name of Zeus’s butthole you got back here.”

“I can even tell you how to find Teyla," John told him. "You think you can get my marines to lower their weapons?” John asked, smiling.

Rodney nodded, and glanced up to the balcony when the mechanic whine of Ronon’s gun powering down echoed through the gateroom.

****

Several hours, and a couple hundred medical tests and examinations, later, John was declared authentic. He grinned, and hopped off the infirmary bed and said, “See? Told ya.”

“Yes, yes, you’re very smart,” Rodney dismissed him with an off hand gesture. “Now, tell me how you, I mean, I worked out what happened.”

Sheppard blinked and Rodney watched as the shutters that he thought were gone fall back into place. He sighed. “It’s a long story, mind if we get into it later? Like when I’ve got cleaned up? I’ve got sand in places that I didn’t even know I had, Rodney. I want to get clean, then go back out there and get Teyla and bring her home.”

Rodney blinked and replied, “Sure. We can do that. Sure. I’ll just, ah, I’ll head back to the..uh”

“Rodney. Don’t…” John trailed off, then took a deep breath and met Rodney’s gaze fully. “I was alone. For a _long_ time.”

And Rodney understood.

Sheppard preferred to be unattached, Rodney knew, having seen him romancing alien babes all over Pegasus galaxy but never cultivating that initial connection. But he had his team, the four of them – John, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon – Rodney knew, had become family. He couldn’t imagine living any amount of time without one or all of them around, and with John’s emphasis on ‘long’ Rodney knew he actually meant ‘too long.’

As much as he tried to live and portray the life of a loner, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard _needed_ his team, just like they needed him. And this statement about being alone a long time was the closest facsimile to an admission of loneliness that Rodney was going to get from Sheppard. Luckily, he spoke excellent Sheppard and just closed his mouth, inclined his head, and followed John back to his quarters.

He waited on the bed as John cleaned up. Years in the military had given him a quick efficiency at washing up post-mission, so Rodney didn’t have long to wait before John was exiting the bathroom. Clad only in an old, smooth pair of sleep pants, John stood in the bathroom doorway toweling off his chest. His hair was sleek with water, only a couple strands on the crown of his head defiantly sticking up.

John finished drying off, and tossed the towel back into the bathroom, then walked across his quarters, bare feet silent on the cool metal of Atlantis’ floor.

Rodney watched John sit down next to him, then lean forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “You’re awful quiet, Rodney. Not sure what to do with that.”

“I’m waiting.” Rodney said, “I realize I’m not really known for patience-”

“Ya think?”

“But,” Rodney glared and forged ahead, “I think this occasion calls for a bit of it. There’s something I want to know, and it’s something only you can tell me. I know you well enough, now, Sheppard, to know that if I just wait, you’ll eventually get around to telling me.”

“Ahh.”

“Yes. ‘Ahh.’ Brilliant.”

John shook his head, then turned to face Rodney, hitching one leg up onto the bed. “There just something…I need to do…first.”

Rodney said, “What’s that?” turning to face Sheppard, and it happened so fast. He’d forgotten just how quickly Sheppard could move.

John leaned forward and laid his lips against Rodney’s. John’s lips were rough, chapped and more than a little salty. His eyes were closed, pinched tight at the corners, like he wasn’t sure about the reception of his kiss, and Rodney didn’t like uncertainty on the face of his commander, so he kissed John back.

Rodney parted his lips a bit, closed his eyes and tilted his head, and John groaned low in his throat then slid his tongue over the smooth line of Rodney’s bottom lip.

Rodney lifted a hand to John’s shoulder, holding onto the hard curve of a deltoid muscle. He had touched John before, but always there’d been the heavy canvas and Kevlar of the tack vest, now it was just skin, warm from the shower, and smooth. Then the muscles bunched under his palm, and John had his fist wrapped in Rodney’s shirt and was pulling him closer.

There was urgency in the grip, in the tug, but John’s mouth stayed soft, and Rodney wasn’t having it. He pushed into the kiss, opened his mouth a little more and slid his tongue against John’s.

Then there were arms and legs and in less than a blink, Rodney had a lap full of half naked John Sheppard.

Finally, when John pulled back and Rodney could look at his face again, the shutters were gone, and John was smiling.

“You know,” Rodney said, hands trailing over John’s naked back, “now, you’re _definitely_ going to have to tell me exactly how I rescued you.”

John took a deep breath, smiled, and said, “Yeah, I know. But…Rodney, seriously. Can’t it wait?”

He leaned in again for a quick biting kiss, then climbed off Rodney's lap. "Teyla's counting on us," he said, and started getting dressed.

Rodney watched him put his BDU's back on, sliding ever so surely back into Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard. _Oh, yeah_ , he thought to himself, _Michael didn't stand a chance_. 


End file.
